"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:42:22 -0400, Dudley Henriques wrote:

My read on this is bad judgment on the part of the Col caused by his
natural concern and deep feelings for the ceremony and the people
involved
with it.

What about the presumption on the part of the part of the letter writer
that the flight was "inappropriate" in some way?

More, we're speaking of a flight at 9:11am. Not 5:11am. And near a
shopping mall; not a hospital or school or other noise-sensitive
environment.

And we're not speaking of an inquiry to the base, but a letter published
in the local (or so I presume) paper.

The response could have been more gentle, but I'm not convinced that the
author deserves the label "innocent".

I suspect that the Colonel's response would have been more informative,
rather than brutal, if the letter writers comments had not come off in such
a smartassed manner.

If the writers question had been formed something like. "...what's with the
low flying planes?", the colonel's response would NOT have been justified.

In fact, I'd say the whole issue of "Missing Man formation", is almost
negligible. My first take on the original writer was of a snot-nosed,
teen-aged punk, certainly not an adult, a veteran in his later 50's. That
"ghetto mentality" is, unfortunately, too much a part of our culture
anymore.